The present invention relates to a new and distinct cultivar of Eupatorium plant, botanically known as Eupatorium hybrida, and hereinafter referred to by the name ‘Phantom’.
The new Eupatorium is a product of a planned breeding program conducted by the Inventor in Rijpwetering, The Netherlands. The objective of the breeding program is to create new compact Eupatorium cultivars with attractive flower coloration.
The new Eupatorium originated from a cross-pollination by the Inventor in 2002 of an unnamed selection of (Eupatorium maculatum cultivar Atropurpureum×Eupatorium rugosum)×Eupatorium maculatum cultivar Atropurpureum, not patented, as the female, or seed, parent with the Eupatorium maculatum cultivar Atropurpureum, not patented, as the male, or pollen, parent. The new Eupatorium was discovered and selected by the Inventor as a single flowering plant from within the progeny of the stated cross-pollination grown in a controlled environment in Rijpwetering, The Netherlands in 2003.
Asexual reproduction of the new Eupatorium by softwood cuttings in a controlled environment in Rijpwetering, The Netherlands since 2003, has shown that the unique features of this new Eupatorium are stable and reproduced true to type in successive generations.